Five national and local advocacy organizations sent a letter
on Tuesday to Alabama's three U.S. attorneys asking them to investigate
potential misuse of jail food funds by sheriffs across the state.
The letter, which was signed by the American Conservative Union
Foundation, FreedomWorks, Southern Center for Human Rights, Alabama
Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and Adelante Alabama Worker Center,
calls for federal authorities to ensure sheriffs are held accountable
if they have improperly pocketed taxpayer money.
"It appears that some sheriffs have placed personal profit above
their sworn duty to meet the basic needs of those in their care," Frank
Knaack, executive director of Alabama Appleseed, says in the letter. "We
are deeply concerned that those charged with enforcing our laws are
instead breaking them. No one is above the law - this includes Alabama's
sheriffs."Blogger Comments: Sheriff Ana Franklin can tell you all about how she has skimmed funds, hundreds of thousands of funds from different accounts with her fuzzy math. This after campaigning she would be the most transparent Sheriff ever and she vowed she would absolutely not touch the inmate food funds. Is Pinocchio in the house??
The letter outlines a range of concerns that the advocacy
organizations have about how county sheriffs manage public funds they
receive to feed inmates in the county jails they oversee. It emphasizes
what the five groups say is a need for a federal investigation into the
longstanding practice of Alabama sheriffs keeping thousands of dollars
worth of inmate-feeding money.

"Sheriffs
with federal detention contracts who pocket money provided for feeding
prisoners have abused the trust of the taxpayers - both in Alabama and
across America - out of whose paychecks these dollars came," the letter
states.
"We respectfully urge you to investigate and, as appropriate,
prosecute sheriffs with federal detention contracts who have converted
jail food funds to their personal use."
The letter was also forwarded to a number of top federal officials
including U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher
Wray and Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The five signatories argue in the letter that some sheriffs -
particularly the ones with contracts to house and feed federal inmates
in their respective county jails - "may be engaging in financial
misconduct" by mishandling jail food funds.Blogger Comments: These corrupt Sheriffs have put a black eye on law enforcement in the entire state of Alabama.
Some sheriffs argue the practice is legal under a Depression-era law
that they believe allows them to personally keep "excess" jail food
money. But the five groups disagree with that reading of the law,
according to the letter.
"Diverting funds provided to feed prisoners is not only unethical, it
is likely illegal," David Safavian, general counsel for the American
Conservative Union, said in the letter. "A fundamental requirement of
federal contractors is to use the money for the purposes for which it
was given. In this case, the avarice of some Alabama sheriffs doesn't
pass the smell test. The stench should be investigated by those charged
with protecting America's taxpayers."

The
new call for a federal investigation comes as sheriffs weather intense
public scrutiny over how they handle funds provided by federal, state
and local agencies to feed inmates that they house in county jails.
The letter cited reporting published
in March by AL.com that exposed that Etowah County Sheriff Todd
Entrekin personally kept more than $750,000 worth of inmate-feeding
funds and purchased a $740,000 beach house in Orange Beach.
"We understand that one such sheriff, Todd Entrekin, whose case has
recently garnered considerable media attention, may have recently come
under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of
the Inspector General," the letter states. "The problem, however,
appears to extend well beyond Etowah County."
It also cited a July AL.com report
that quoted former kitchen workers in Etowah County's jail who said
that the food served there was sub-par, insufficient and sometimes
rotten or spoiled.
"The people in these sheriffs' custody are human beings, not abstract
profit margins," Jessica Vosburgh, executive and legal director of
Adelante Alabama, said in the letter. "As long as their jailers see each
person behind bars as an opportunity to reap additional profits with
impunity, the incentives to cut corners in ways that threaten these
individuals' basic safety will abound. Taxpayers will ultimately foot
the bill with our wallets, and detained persons with their health, their
wellbeing, and sometimes even their lives."

In January, the Southern Center for Human Rights and Alabama Appleseed - which both signed the letter sent Tuesday - filed suit
against 49 Alabama sheriffs who declined to provide financial records
showing if they personally kept any jail food money for personal use.
They argued in the suit that such records are public and that their
disclosure is essential to ensure that the sheriffs are not abusing
their positions by improperly benefiting from taxpayer funds.
"The law is clear, and Governor [Kay] Ivey has made clear: jail food
funds are public funds, and should be used exclusively for feeding
incarcerated people," Aaron Littman, staff attorney at the Southern
Center for Human Rights, said in the letter. "Because these sheriffs
have refused to disclose to the public how much taxpayer money they have
taken, further investigation is urgently required to determine whether
they are violating federal criminal and contracting law."https://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/10/national_local_advocates_urge.html#incart_river_index